VIOLIST

Dr. Tonya Burton is a dynamic violist, educator, and chamber musician whose career spans a broad spectrum of performance, teaching, and artistic leadership. Based in Houston, Texas, she is a core member and curator for Kinetic Ensemble and Monarch Chamber Players, and is a Grammy-voting member of the Recording Academy.

As a performer, Burton is celebrated for her expressive artistry and commitment to new music. She frequently performs with cutting edge groups including Caroga Arts Collective, Apollo Chamber Players, Aperio, Musiqa, and her performances have taken her to venues such as Carnegie Hall, Rothko Chapel, and Miller Outdoor Theatre. She is a featured artist on multiple recordings, including Kinetic, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Classical Traditional Chart. Internationally, she is an artist-in-residence at the Talis Festival and Academy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Burton holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Maryland, a Master of Music from Rice University, and a Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music. She serves as Adjunct Professor of Viola at Sam Houston State University and maintains an active private studio.

CELLIST

Dr. Syneva Colle Hernández is a performer, composer and educator who divides her energies between the worlds of classical and popular music. She is the Teaching Assistant Professor of Cello and String Education at Kansas State University, and Assistant Principal Cellist for the Topeka Symphony. She is a featured soloist on over twenty commercial albums.

Syneva is passionate about making music accessible to communities of all ages. She is the director of the String Academy at K-State, a teacher training program, and previously served as a Teaching Artist with the D.C. Youth Orchestra Program. Active in the world of music arranging and composition, Syneva co-owns Corwin Music Publishing, a platform offering contemporary string ensemble music for performers and educators. She composed original scores for the documentaries By Walking (2025) and Huan Dao (2016), and has created string parts for dozens of commercial albums.

CELLIST

Dr. Rachel Dirks, Director of Orchestral Studies at Kansas State University, is an active conductor, clinician, researcher, and educator. In addition to her work with the K-State Orchestra Program, she teaches graduate and undergraduate conducting and string education courses. Dr. Dirks has conducted orchestras throughout the United States, most recently in New York, Georgia, Hawaii, and California. As a featured clinician and educator, she has presented her research for numerous music education conferences within the U.S. and Europe. A Kansas native, Dirks holds cello performance degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and Bethel College, and a Ph.D. in music education, with an emphasis in orchestral conducting, from the University of Kansas. Throughout her experiences, her fundamental goal is to encourage musicians to seek and create community through music.

VIOLINIST

Described as “dynamic and compelling” (Charleston City Paper), violinist Eva Dove has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall to Texas death row. She is currently serving as professor of violin and viola at Southeast Missouri State University and concertmaster of the Southeast Missouri Symphony.

A passionate chamber musician, collaborators include the late Lynn Harrell, Alisa Weilerstein, Jennifer Frautschi, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, and Brooklyn Rider. Eva has led performances as concertmaster for Spoleto Festival USA, San Diego’s OperaNeo Festival, the Vermont Mozart Festival, and at the International Double Reed Society Conference. During her doctoral studies Eva performed with the Phoenix Symphony and soloed with the Women’s Orchestra of Arizona, the MusicaNova Orchestra, and the ASU Baroque Ensemble.

As an educator, Eva spent several years building and directing the string program at Glendale Community College and worked extensively for the El Sistema program Harmony Project. During the summer months she teaches at the Luzerne Music Center in upstate NY.

A longtime student of Paul Kantor, Eva received her Bachelors and Masters degrees from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music as a recipient of the Starling Foundation Scholarship. During her graduate studies at Rice she was named a Brown Scholar and served on the faculty of Shepherd’s Preparatory Program. She is currently a doctoral candidate at Arizona State University, where she also served as Chamber Music Teaching Assistant.

VIOLINIST

Dr. Madeleine Jansen is a dynamic violinist, educator, and arts advocate, praised by the San Francisco Classical Voice for her expressive interpretations across a wide repertoire. She is currently Assistant Professor of Violin and Viola at Kansas State University. As a soloist and chamber musician, Jansen has performed throughout the U.S., Brazil, and Europe, and is a dedicated champion of contemporary music.

Jansen has given masterclasses at institutions across the U.S. and Brazil including Sam Houston State University, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Oklahoma State University, Washburn University, Colorado State University, and the Corda International Music Festival, and previously taught a thriving private studio in New York City. Her students have gone on to top conservatories and music programs including the Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard pre-college divisions, San Francisco Conservatory, University of Michigan, Boston University, NYU, University of Maryland, and Vanderbilt University, Jansen earned degrees from Boston University, the Royal College of Music, UMass Amherst, and a doctorate from the University of Maryland, where her research focused on audience engagement.

VIOLIST

Elena Kolbrek De León is a concert violinist/violist and dedicated strings educator with a passion for expanding access to classical music, particularly through education. As the founding Executive Director of the Vargas Foundation, she has championed student-centered music instruction in 15 countries, supporting young musicians in overcoming economic and geographic barriers. Elena has taught privately across the U.S. and internationally, including in Guatemala, Nigeria, South Africa, the Philippines, and Venezuela. She was recently appointed to launch a new orchestra program for USD 232, the second-ranked school district in Kansas. Continuing her commitment to educational outreach, Elena is developing an online course focused on orchestral excerpts and audition preparation, as well as method books for violin and string orchestra.

As a performer, she has served as the interim Assistant Concertmaster of the Columbus Symphony (GA) and played as a member of the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra, where she received tenure. She holds a Master’s in Music and an Artist Diploma from the Schwob School of Music, and a Bachelor’s in Violin Performance and K–12 Music Education from the University of Minnesota, graduating summa cum laude.